Emerging Tools

How can web 2.0 tools, specifically those new to the market fit into K-12/post-secondary education? Are they beneficial? What are the potential downfalls? What are the pros and cons of implementing the tool or tool genre that you selected? Are there promising practices or exemplary programs that provide examples?

The amount of emerging technology tools geared toward educators and students can be too overwhelming or too underwhelming, depending on who you ask. Umang Gupta is on the side of underwhelming. He wrote in an EdSurge article that educational technology tools are, to put it frankly, nothing that’s going to change the world. “Educational technology has been effective at solving problems related to school information processing—such as managing student data, testing and compliance,” he wrote. “Few products have conclusively been proven to help kids learn better, however. And that means technology has never really been viewed as “mission critical” by most educators and school administrators.” On the other hand, Steve Hargadon, the host of a podcast called The Future of Education, compared emerging tools of the 21st century to the perspective of a massive wave coming to shore. Some educators feel the wave is so big they want to watch it cautiously from above while others want to hang on and enjoy the ride while it lasts. In this blog post, I am going to research the benefits and potential downfalls of using Canvas as a primary learning management system over Google Classroom.

So what is a learning management system (LMS)? According to an article that appeared in the journal Elsevier, a learning management system is a “web-based system that allow instructors and/or students to share materials, submit and return assignments, and communicate online” (Lonn, Teasley). In other words, an LMS is an online all-in-one platform that allows educators to provide content and instruction more efficiently and it helps engage more students by giving them a variety of tools to be assessed and communicate with their instructor and their peers.

I am currently experimenting with Canvas in my face-to-face language arts classroom. All students have access to laptops or desktops on a daily basis. Therefore, in January of 2018 I decided to move away from Google Classroom and begin using Canvas to deliver and store class content. The implementation of Canvas has overall been successful but I have experienced my share of failures as well. In Chapter 2 of Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies, Michelle Pacansky-Brock writes that it’s a good thing when educators — or anyone for that matter — experience failure with technology. “… failure is tough,” she wrote. “And professors don’t openly relish the opportunity to fail” (2). In my experience, failure is another word for botched implementation. Whether it’s an unpublished assignment or a mistake in grading or an error in communication, failure comes in different forms with technology. Students will catch mistakes and they can react either positively or negatively based on how well the instructor responds to the failure.

According to The Ohio State University, there are three main benefits of using Canvas: 1. Clean interface; 2. Easier building experience; 3. Speedgrader. There are four main benefits for students: 1. Mobile app; 2. Grades; 3. Simplified collaboration; 4. Calendar. PC Magazine ranked the best 2018 learning management systems and Canvas came out a winner. “Boasting a modern interface, native web hosting, and extensive third-party integrations, Canvas is the best educational learning management system on the market today.” So what makes Canvas the best LMS on the market? What makes it better than Google Classroom? PC Magazine said this about Google Classroom: “Lacks most features associated with a traditional learning management system (LMS). Needs tighter integration with Google’s own communication tools, including Hangouts. Lacks Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) support.” According to IMS Global Learning Consortium, the advantages of an LMS including an LTI component is that it can communicate with a central grade book. In other words, Canvas can be set up to save educators time by avoiding the dreaded double-entering of grades. For example, if Johnny takes a quiz on Google Forms, his teacher needs to make a note of his score and then manually enter the score in the school district’s grade book. Taking a quiz on Canvas avoids that step by syncing its grade book to the school’s grade book.

To some educators, the grade book feature can be a major downside. What if Canvas doesn’t sync correctly with the grade book? What if Canvas completely glitches out? What if I invested time to put all of my classroom materials and resources on Canvas and the company goes bankrupt? Or — more realistically — what if my school district stops supporting Canvas? These are fears that keep educators from exploring new technology, said Anne Glasel, who wrote an article for Medium.com called 6 Reasons Why Teachers Don’t Use Technology in the Classroom. “Some teachers would love to have a specific device or app for a particular class that they are teaching, e.g. Physics, Maths, Biology, but because other educators don’t know or don’t want to understand the benefits or the possibilities of that particular type of tool, they down-vote it or simply reject investing in them.”

In conclusion, Canvas has become the go-to learning management system in the K-12 classroom, more so than Google Classroom, simply for its usability. Based on the evidence above, the pros seem to outweigh the cons. Every educator and student in the Anchorage School District has access to Canvas. Now the question is if school districts are willing to give quality professional development for Canvas and if the state government can invest more money into classrooms so every student can have equal access to a reliable electronic device.

Kevin, I’ve never seen these two LMSes compared head to head before. Classroom’s feature set is certainly expanding rapidly and consistently. We use Canvas for a few courses at UAF, and one of the huge advantages I find when I work in it is the ability to link it to third party tools such as Flipgrid and PlayPosit. It takes some working under the hood, but it can be done by a teacher without an admin assisting (this is in the free for teachers edition – yours is likely more heavily administered).

I enjoyed your review of Canvas. I’ve only interacted with this platform as a student though. But I’ve been a Blackboard junkie since I started teaching at UAF. It’s a system that I’m familiar and comfortable with. I may consider experimenting with a different LMS in the future, but for now I’m a cautious watcher rather than a thrill-seeker.

Failure is a good thing as Pacansky-Brock points out. First, students can see a real person behind the LMS. When I come across as a fallible person, I become more relatable to students–the instructor presence increases. Second, FAIL is really just “First Attempt In Learning.” It’s a learning experience. When I foul up, students are pretty understanding.

I also enjoyed reading your post comparing the LMSs. I use Google Classroom for my courses and it hasn’t left me wanting. They have a feedback button, that I believe they genuinely take to heart the feedback that is reported from teachers. If I compare last year to this year, there are many new features I have enjoyed quite a bit. Is Canvas yearly updated? What is its iteration cycle?

I found it very interesting that you experimented using Canvas on top of face to face classroom. You can make use of it for homework for sure. I absolutely LOVE Canvas. So glad you compared it to Google Classroom, which I don’t have much experience with. One of my ONID classes the final project was to publish a mock course and I used Canvas for it. Your questions about Canvas and its possibility of relying too much on something that can disappear can be held to other edtech tools or the Internet itself. They are the same questions I had about WordPress. Then the hurricane happened last year in Puerto Rico and I questioned how much we rely on technology period.
On another note, do you have any advice on searching for podcasts? Barely found any when I was looking for edtech tools.

There are so many things to love about Canvas. That said, I have a fair share of frustrations with the LMS. But for the most part, it has completely changed the way I deliver the curriculum. To answer your question about podcasts, I use the iPhone Podcast app and sometimes Stitcher to find Podcasts. The iPhone Podcast app has improved drastically. What kind of podcasts are you looking for? #onidpr

Hey Kevin,
I really enjoyed your post. We don’t have a lot of teachers currently in our district using available edtech. Part of the reason for this I believe is connected to one part of your post, “Some teachers would love to have a specific device or app for a particular class that they are teaching, e.g. Physics, Maths, Biology, but because other educators don’t know or don’t want to understand the benefits or the possibilities of that particular type of tool, they down-vote it or simply reject investing in them.” A lot of times when we are voting on new technology in faculty meetings it is automatically rejected. It seems to be just one more thing added to an already overfilled plate on the teachers part. I can see how after taking the time to learn how to use it and implement it into the classroom there would be a lot of frustration in the event that it fails. I’m wondering how this process can be changed to have less failure and more success in the implementation of EdTech. We have changed our grading system as well as our GradeBook in the last year. I can see how it would be overwhelming to keep up with all of the changes and implement something new! A lot of the time when something is implemented teachers are not trained well enough to feel confident in using it in the classroom. I don’t really have any mechanical changes or suggestions for improvement. #onidpr